Former Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader dies after battle with illness
- Country:
- Lebanon
A former leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group Ramadan Shallah has died after battling illness, al-Manar TV reported on Saturday. Shallah, 62, served as secretary-general of the Iran-backed group from 1995 to 2018.
Al-Manar did not specify the exact nature of the illness. Labelled a terrorist organisation by the United States, European Union and others, the group has waged attacks on Israel and aims to establish an Islamic Palestinian state.
"By losing Shallah we lost a great national man," said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in a statement published by the Palestinian official news agency WAFA. Shallah was born in Gaza in 1958 and studied in Egypt before earning a PhD in economics in the United Kingdom.
He was elected head of Palestinian Islamic Jihad after the killing of the group's former chief, Fathi Shiqaqi, in 1995.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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- Mahmoud Abbas
- Palestinian
- Iran
- European Union
- Israel
- Gaza
- Egypt
- United Kingdom
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